NASA: the IceSat-2 satellite will be sent to space tomorrow

It will study the average variations of polar ice sheets -VIDEO

Tomorrow from the American Air Force Base in Vandenberg the IceSat-2 satellite will be sent into orbit by the American space agency (NASA), which will have the task of studying the average variation of the thickness of the ice caps covering the Antarctic and part Greenland for all 6 years of the mission. To do this, the probe will be equipped with a laser instrument capable of accurately measuring every slight change, thanks to the 10 thousand pulses per second. The launch of the Delta II carrier rock -produced by the United Launch Alliance- will take place at 5:46 am local time, that is the Italian afternoon, after yesterday the mission control team and the launch team carried out a general test, in which no problems of any kind have been detected.

The Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2, or ICESat-2, will carry a single instrument, the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS), which measures the travel times of laser pulses to calculate the distance between the spacecraft and Earth’s surface. The US Air Force 30th Space Wing weather officer indicated that they are predicting a 100 percent chance of favorable weather on launch day.